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- Description:
- Don Stevens, former Michigan State University trustee and AFL-CIO board member, reminisces about his childhood, family, farming, his early education, and his experiences with labor unions and union organizing. Stevens talks about his early work life, hearing about unions during the auto sit-down strikes in 1936 and 1937, listening to radio preachers condemn unions, and failed attempts to unionize a laundry where he worked and later success in organizing dairy and retail workers in the Grand Rapids area in the 1940s. Stevens also discusses CIO leadership during the war, union political efforts regarding health and safety, unemployment insurance, higher wages, and seniority rights and his own involvement in the growing union movement and labor organizing. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part one of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, Robert Repas, professor emeritus of the Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations, talks about being admitted to Ruskin College in England on a trade unionist scholarship and his tour of the continent during the post war period. He decries the failure of American labor to take a truly international approach in Europe after the war because of the fear of Communist influence on unions and how little the CIO, in particular, did to assist in the rebuilding the German unions until Walter Reuther assumed CIO leadership. He also talks about his staff position at the School for Workers in Wisconsin, teaching labor history, running afoul of company owners and conservative faculty and describes his "most productive years" spent working with the American Friends Service Committee and Hugh Rickert in Philadelphia and later teaching in union schools. Repas is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-12-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Don Stevens, former Michigan State University trustee and AFL-CIO board member, talks about strife in the CIO and the division between different locals, Water Reuther backing Gus Scholle for leadership of the Michigan CIO and the left-right fight within the CIO. He discusses efforts by the University of Michigan to establish a labor program and says that General Motors and Michigan Bell put "spys" into the classes and demanded that the program be "killed," which led to the establishment of the CIO education facility in Port Huron Stevens also recalls John Hannah's interest in establishing a labor program at MSU as the Republican majority in the state declined and Hannah's defense of the program before the Michigan Senate. He says that Hannah also called a special trustee meeting in 1963 in an attempt to bar two left-wing speakers from campus, and later wanted to expel antiwar demonstration leaders. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part two of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- In an oral history interview, Robert Repas, professor emeritus of the Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations, talks about being admitted to Ruskin College in England on a trade unionist scholarship and his tour of the continent during the post war period. He decries the failure of American labor to take a truly international approach in Europe after the war because of the fear of Communist influence on unions and how little the CIO, in particular, did to assist in the rebuilding the German unions until Walter Reuther assumed CIO leadership. He also talks about his staff position at the School for Workers in Wisconsin, teaching labor history, running afoul of company owners and conservative faculty and describes his "most productive years" spent working with the American Friends Service Committee and Hugh Rickert in Philadelphia and later teaching in union schools. Repas is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations.
- Date Issued:
- 1986-12-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Don Stevens, former Michigan State University trustee and AFL-CIO board member, reminisces about his childhood, family, farming, his early education, and his experiences with labor unions and union organizing. Stevens talks about his early work life, hearing about unions during the auto sit-down strikes in 1936 and 1937, listening to radio preachers condemn unions, and failed attempts to unionize a laundry where he worked and later success in organizing dairy and retail workers in the Grand Rapids area in the 1940s. Stevens also discusses CIO leadership during the war, union political efforts regarding health and safety, unemployment insurance, higher wages, and seniority rights and his own involvement in the growing union movement and labor organizing. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part one of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
- Description:
- Don Stevens, former Michigan State University trustee and AFL-CIO board member, talks about strife in the CIO and the division between different locals, Water Reuther backing Gus Scholle for leadership of the Michigan CIO and the left-right fight within the CIO. He discusses efforts by the University of Michigan to establish a labor program and says that General Motors and Michigan Bell put "spys" into the classes and demanded that the program be "killed," which led to the establishment of the CIO education facility in Port Huron Stevens also recalls John Hannah's interest in establishing a labor program at MSU as the Republican majority in the state declined and Hannah's defense of the program before the Michigan Senate. He says that Hannah also called a special trustee meeting in 1963 in an attempt to bar two left-wing speakers from campus, and later wanted to expel antiwar demonstration leaders. Stevens is interviewed by John Revitte, MSU professor of Labor and Industrial Relations. Part two of four.
- Date Issued:
- 1983-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection